From oat field to coffee shop:

[Emma JC]

go Canada!! Lots of very interesting information and statistics regarding oat milk vs cow milk, and the other plant based milks and their use of resources like water and land... Emma JC

From oat field to coffee shop: The latest non-dairy star is grown in Canada
Oat milk sales up 250% in Canada in the past year


https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/oat-milk-trend-benefiting-saskatchewan-canada-1.5325171

 

[Lou]

What about soy milk?

 

[Emma JC]

What about soy milk?

There is a least one reference to soy in the article. It notes that oat milk froths more readily than soy milk does.

Lots of the soy is also grown on the Canadian prairies, in Quebec and some of the Eastern Provinces. We are 7th in the world in soy production I believe.

Emma JC

 

[Emma JC]

What about soy milk?

It's hard to find concrete numbers, that agree between articles, for the water usage stats. It appears that soy and oat are likely similar as the growing conditions are similar for them and I would assume that production-wise it would be similar also.

Emma JC

 

[Lou]

I did a bit of googling and the number that came up most often is
297 liters of water to produce 1 liter of soy milk. I think its all based on the same study. That one that was done in Belgium.

There were also numbers of pounds, and cups, and gallons. But I didn't bother to do the math.
I think it's safe to say with confidence that soy takes less water than dairy and almond.

Plus I guess it might depend on where it is grown and how much irrigation it needs. but it looks like oats take less water.

- https://www.1millionwomen.com.au/blog/are-non-dairy-milk-alternatives-sustainable/
-https://theconversation.com/soy-versus-dairy-whats-the-footprint-of-milk-8498
-https://research.utwente.nl/en/publications/the-water-footprint-of-soy-milk-and-soy-burger-and-equivalent-ani
-https://waterfootprint.org/media/downloads/Ercin-et-al-2012-WaterFootprintSoy_1.pdf

 

[Mischief]

I don't know of anywhere where either soybeans or oats (or wheat, rye, corn, etc.) are irrigated. I don't think it would be cost effective to plant them where irrigation would be required.

 

[Lou]

I've driven by fields of soybeans and seen the sprinklers at work. Soybeans are often used as a rotation crop. I think a lot of times in cornfields.

Here is an article about how to water soybeans

Timing Is Key to Watering Soybeans

www.agriculture.com

 

[Mischief]

I've driven by fields of soybeans and seen the sprinklers at work. Soybeans are often used as a rotation crop. I think a lot of times in cornfields.

Here is an article about how to water soybeans

Timing Is Key to Watering Soybeans

www.agriculture.com

I grew up on a soybean/corn farm.

I was thinking of the traditional channel irrigation. In order for soybeans and corn to be profitable, they are densely planted, too densely for channel irrigation to be feasible.

 

[Mischief]

I was curious, because I've never seen a soybean field being watered. Apparently, about 6-7% of soybean acreage is watered via sprinklers currently, and that's a fairly recent development. It seems to be limited pretty much to Nebraska and Arkansas, and I've never visited either state. https://farmdocdaily.illinois.edu/2017/05/us-soybean-yield-trends-for-irrigated-production.html

 

[Lou]

Hmm. I've definitely seen corn being irrigated. I thought that most places have to irrigate it. and then the water they rotate and put in soybeans they use the same irrigation system. mostly those big sprinklers on wheels although I think I've seen those circular ones too.

I'm sure I've seen wheat fields being watered, too.

I'm basically a city slicker now but I've driven all over and I like to identify plants as I drive by. I think that started when I moved out west and discovered I didn't know what anything is. Although plant taxonomy at 70 mph is a little tricky. it gets easier when there are miles and miles of the same thing.

my observations are probably skewed because I live in California and almost everything gets irrigated. It's probably different in Iowa.

 

[Mischief]

Hmm. I've definitely seen corn being irrigated. I thought that most places have to irrigate it. and then the water they rotate and put in soybeans they use the same irrigation system. mostly those big sprinklers on wheels although I think I've seen those circular ones too.

I'm sure I've seen wheat fields being watered, too.

I'm basically a city slicker now but I've driven all over and I like to identify plants as I drive by. I think that started when I moved out west and discovered I didn't know what anything is. Although plant taxonomy at 70 mph is a little tricky. it gets easier when there are miles and miles of the same thing.

my observations are probably skewed because I live in California and almost everything gets irrigated. It's probably different in Iowa.

Your cornfields are probably mostly for sweet corn, not grain corn, I assume. The profit margins on that are different. Right now, grain corn is selling at $3.50 per bushel locally. That's shelled (off the cob).

Yeah, you're set up for irrigation, because so many of your crops need watering. That's not the case in Illinois (where I grew up) or Missouri, where I've lived much of my adult life.

Financially, the investment in a sprinkler system probably wouldn't pay off for the roughly 1% bump in production, not to mention the infrastructure for sourcing water simply doesn't exist. Farms are dependent on their own wells, and during dry years, many of those wells run dry just on household usage. There are no pipelines here, transporting water from snowfed lakes in the high lands. Heck, we don't have high lands.

 

[Emma JC]

Since we are discussing watering crops... I watched a great YouTube video last night about vertical farming. Amazing!!

Emma JC